Curtin University Open Day 2006

On Sunday Curtin University had its Open Day. They said that last year some 10000 people attended. I had a look at the fixture list and decided that it would be nice to go. Besides, it was the 20th anniversary of it becoming a university and the 40th anniversary of its initial opening as the WAIT Institute. There were lots of activities that I thought Yu-Jin would enjoy.

In the Physio section in building 400 they had a skeleton to construct and Yu-Jin had a fairly reasonable idea where all the bits went. There were also some balance tests which we were all quite good at but Yu-Jin was outstanding at. I thought that he was a bit unco myself but standing on a ball with his eyes closed posed no problems. In fact, they had to kick him off because he was too good.

Reconstructing half a skeleton.

There was an old style vitalagraph which measured your lung capacity and mine was up around 5.8 litres so I'm pretty chuffed about that. Just goes to show that I'm a big blowhard. We did an oxygen level and pulse rate test. I had the best oxygen level but the highest pulse rate. Whoops.

In the Psychology building they were offering hearing tests and Yu-Jin, who loves taking tests, was dead serious about the test. The student who conducted the test said that although she was still learning and the test results couldn't be guaranteed, the results indicated that his hearing was within the normal range and very good in the low and high frequency areas. That just proves he has no trouble hearing but that listening is the problem. Typical kid.

He's a picture of concentration, isn't he?

We had some lunch and then took Miky home. She had to work and there was a total of six or seven dresses for her to do over the weekend. Yu-Jin and I went back to the uni and visited the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library where Lynne gave us a tour. I was unaware that our WWII wartime leader had only attended school until he was 14. That's a remarkable achievement actually. Bit boring for Yu-Jin so we went elsewhere.

Scitech put on a few shows for kids with their travelling sideshow. The first one we saw used liquid nitrogen and the second one was with slime.

Scitech Balloon Animal Vid


Scitech Paul The Poodle Vid


Later we saw a couple of demonstrations of kendo. The first one used the sticks, called a shinai, and the second utilised swords.

Kendo Demonstration with Shinai Vid


Kendo Demonstration With Swords Vid


Following the kendo was the Chung Wah Association Lion Dance Group which included two lions and a very loud musical backing. Deafening would be closer to the truth.

The Chung Wah Association Lion Dance Group lion.

Chung Wah Association Lion Dance Vid


One of the other displays that we visited, to get a free ice cream, was about bacteria. They showed boiled eggs, eggs at room temperature, frozen eggs, eggs in dry ice at -50 degrees C and then they froze some silverbeet at -80 deg C which just shattered in the fingers. A demonstration about bacteria and the need to wash your hands with soap and not just water, viewed with an ultraviolet light, was very informative and perfect for someone of Yu-Jin's age. About this time we bumped into, or rather he bumped into us, my friend Ben who was looking for the rest of his family.

I wanted to visit a display about coin tossing and mathematics and some students were blowing things up nearby. Pity we missed it as that was certainly the type of thing to attract a young boy's attention. Nearby was some big bubble making equipment that we stumbled upon with another kid just mucking around.

Yu-Jin making a large bubble.

Yu-Jin Making a Large Bubble Vid


All in all a great day out for the boy. If you wanted to learn some serious business about attending university that was available also but we didn't go there for that.

Lost Children 599 - I don't remember this building when I went to uni.